View full sizeBenjamin Brink / The OregonianOrange fencing runs through a 42-acre property in Tigard, where 36 acres of trees are set to be removed next month. Landowner Fred Fields of Portland obtained a city permit to clear the trees.

A Portland landowner plans to start cutting down 36 acres of trees on his Tigard property by the beginning of August.

Lawyers for retired Portland manufacturing executive Fred Fields, who owns the 42-acre plot of forested industrial land south of Hunziker Road and east of Wall Street, said workers have begun constructing erosion control fencing and other prework at the property. The area contains an estimated 2,300 trees.

Fields has responded to neighbors' concerns by scaling back his plan, sparing six acres of trees. The original plan called for removing all trees except a 50-foot-wide buffer at the border where Fields' property abuts his neighbors. The new plan will include a 150-foot buffer.

The added buffer also has an economic advantage, said Ron Bunch, Tigard's community development director. It complies with a new city tree code set to go into effect next year, which requires developers to maintain a certain amount of canopy on their property.

Fields, who has owned the land for decades, first submitted paperwork seeking the city's permission to fell the trees more than a year ago. Eventually, he hopes to sell the land to a developer.

The city originally granted Fields' request, until Clean Water Services ordered a halt to the project, citing required paperwork that Fields had yet to file. Clean Water Services spokesman Mark Jockers said Fields filed the paperwork in December and has had clearance to begin cutting the trees for months.

Canaday said Fields wanted to wait until the summertime to begin the work.

"It's basically the driest month to do this," Canaday said. "All the adverse effects of logging are minimized in this time."

Fields' representatives see the tree removal as a good thing. On one hand, they have a point, Bunch said. The land is 84 percent of Tigard's vacant industrial land. The city has a shortage of available industrial land, and planners expect to need even more industrial land within the next quarter-century.

"From a business side of things, one can see his point," Bunch said. "But it certainly is difficult for the community because this property has been forested for a long time."

Fields hasn't filed paperwork seeking the right to develop the land, but he has vocalized plans to sell to a developer. Tigard city policy requires landowners to wait at least a year to develop their land after removing trees, Bunch said.

With the trees' removal now imminent, the question remains of what to do with thousands of severed trunks. City regulations prohibit Fields from selling the wood -- a policy meant to deter landowners from simply clearcutting land for a profit.

"It's definitely somewhat troublesome for them, because they would like to make use of those logs," Bunch said.

Options include donating the wood (without accepting a tax deduction), running it through a chipper or stacking the logs somewhere on the property, Bunch said.